News

TiPb has survived another fun day at Macworld 2010 and hosted many more interviews and snapped more photos for you to check out. We are sad our time at Macworld is over, but excited to share exciting things with you over the next weeks. Stay tuned!

Check out the photos after the break, including the Kai from Beejive, Ten 1 stylus for iPhone, mophie with Flow TV, Trexta iPhone cases, Brushes app, David from AppCubby, the Navigon crew, Jobby Gorillapod for iPhone, team TUAW streaming live, MusicSkins, Rogue Amoeba, Hypermac iPod and iPhone charger, Leanna and Rene saying goodbye for this year!

Silicon Alley Insider claims, according to a source, that Google pays Apple $100 million dollars a year to be the default search engine for the iPhone. Frenemies indeed:

For Apple, that's not a lot of money. But, it's enough that it doesn't make sense for Apple to put considerable resources towards building its own Internet search engine. And, if Apple wanted more money or options, there's Microsoft -- with Bing and a big checkbook.

Patently Apple reports that, more than 3 years after Steve Jobs announced the iPhone on the stage at Macworld 2007, Apple has finally secured the trademark:

iPhone is a registered trademark of Apple Inc. – officially as of Feb 09, 2010. The registration number 3,746,840 covers International Classes 9, 28 and 38 which are presented in this report for clarification.

NLU Privacy ScreenGuardz [$19.99 - iMore Store link] come from the same folks who make BodyGuardz and represents the first -- to my knowledge -- 4-way privacy screen for the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS.

I had the chance to see the ScreenGuardz at CES in January, and was able to test it out throughout Macworld 2010, and it works well. (And yes, they had a picture up for an iPad screen already!)

4-way refers to both vertical and horizontal privacy, meaning that when your iPhone is in portrait or landscape mode, the field of view is obscured to the degree that while you can still see it, anyone sitting next to you trying to spy on you can't. It looks either mostly or completely black to them, depending on the viewing angle.

In terms of drawback, while the view from the front remains clear it does look slightly darker (think Avatar 3D glasses) so you may want to pump up your brightness slightly to compensate. Also, if you want to let the person next to you see your iPhone -- to watch a movie or help with Maps directions, for example -- you're out of luck. There's no such thing as selective privacy!

Application is simple and the case is thin, though you'll feel a slight ridge around the Home button cutout.

If you have sensitive information on your iPhone, or just don't appreciate snoops on the plane, train, or bus (or the desk next to you!) then it's definitely something to check out.

For more, check out the video from Macworld 2010, after the break, where NLU installs a ScreenGuardz on my iPhone (and yes, it stopped Leanna from peeking over my shoulder completely!

According to the gadget website T3, Microsoft Senior Product Manager Mike Tedesco recently let it be known that the Seattle based company is currently toying with the possibility of creating a version of their Office suite for Apple's iPad.

BeejiveIM [iTunes Link - $9.99] has always been one of TiPb's favorite IM clients and it continues to impress with the release of version 3.2. This application is arguably one of the finest IM clients currently available for the iPhone and iPod touch and with the following enhancements it's hard for anyone to dispute.

Of course if BNET asks Bill Gates about rival Steve Jobs' latest creation, the iPad, he'll have to dismiss it in public -- to do otherwise wouldn't be in service of Microsoft. What's more telling is his confession about the iPhone (infamously banned at his house) some three years later:

Former Microsoft CEO, Bill Gates, and Windows Vista honcho, Bill Allchin, had an email exchange back in 2003 when Apple launched iTunes and were rather candid about how well Steve Jobs put it together, and how badly Microsoft was caught off guard.

Gates says Microsoft was caught "flat footed". He also praises Jobs and doubts the subscription model Microsoft now uses for the Zune HD:

Steve Jobs ability to focus in on a few things that count, get people who get user interface right and market things as revolutionary are amazing things.

[...] With the subscription who can promise you that the cool new stuff you want (or old stuff) will be there?